QUAD ESL 63s - Dust covers

I have just got a pair of these. Unfortunately one of the panels got damaged in transit. I took the offending panel off and have returned it to get repaired. While taking the old panel off, the dust cover disintegrated. I have ordered material to make a new cover.

Does anyone have any Tips etc about making the dust cover?

Thanks

 

Quad Dust Covers

Hi Dreftar

Wecome to the ESL club! I switched from TDL monitors to ESL 63s (plus gradient SW63s) about 5 years ago and it's one of the best things I ever did.

First point, If the dust covers are in this condition what are the panels like? I had Quad check mine over and found a few of the panels were defective. Also took the opportunity to have the grills updated to those used in the 988. In my view Quad's repair prices are still reasonable, but if you are keen to go it alone see below.

A good place to start is Geert Meddens site. http://www.euronet.nl/users/temagm/audio/esl63.htm
He has some good photos and diagrams and a copy of the service manual (repairing a damaged dustcover is page 14)

I can also recommend Mats Törnqvist's site http://user.tninet.se/~vhw129w/mt_audio_design/index.htm, which is full of good stuff and a particularly good solution for the problem with the cross-over between the Quads and Gradients (should you decide to go that route)

Sevice manual and svhematics are also available at One Thing audio http://www.onethingaudio.com/FOR/9152-MAIN-FOR.htm


Best wishes and good luck!

 

Thank you
I have sent the faulty panel for servicing. When my bank balance recovers from the initial shock of purchase, I intend spending some time refurbishing. I missed an opportunity to purchase a pair of 57's in 1978 and am only now recovering. The seventies and the eighties were a high point for most things audio. IMHO

 

missed opportunity

Yes, I decided not to buy ESL 63s when I bought the TDLs. Part of the reason was I got a discount on the TDLs and the ESLs seemed expensive by comparison! Did I feel sick as the price the ESLs went up and up with the various changes of management. Perhaps wisdom only comes with making bl***y silly mistakes!

BTW, if you are not using single stranded speaker cables with the ESLs, you really should try it. I don't mean solid core mains cable, but multiple, individually-insulated, thin wires (sometimes called Litz construction). I'm using the TNT design based on Cat-5 cable and it really made a difference. It's also a relatively cheap experiment. Given that I was cable sceptic, that is saying something! (Hope, I don't start another one of those pointless GSCE physics vs new-age mysticism flame wars! )

Best wishes

 

What an interesting coincidence about the cables. I made up some cables as described by TNT at the weekend from some network cable I had lying around. Cant say I noticed much difference. My cables are only a few centimetres long as I site my amps close to my speakers.

 

The cat5 cables are ok ....but you can make extremely good cables yourself.

I went through cat5..ffrc ...ubyte...my own version of ffrc ...and the investigated silver in ptfe ..

These were head and shoulders above my version of ffrc so much so that I've pushed the design on to use 5mm silver ribbon. If you need more details pm me

If your amps are close to the speakers you can get a way with a meter or so then you can keep the cost down to about £50 for the materials....which seems a lot but you may be supprised by the results.

 

Cables and Quads

The TNT braided Cat 5s made a real difference for me with the Quads, but for "domestic acceptability" I have had to site the amps on one side of the room. Hence one of the cables is rather long; pehaps thats why I heard a difference. (BTW It was not just me who could hear the difference).

I have been wondering whether to do something about speaker cables now I've moved house to get the "listening room" I want. The great thing about messing around with designs like those on TNT is that the cost is not huge, but it can escalate rapidly when you move away from commonly used wires as your raw material- especially if you need a long run. Shorter speaker cables would obviously be better (or at least no worse). Perhaps I could resite my gear in the new room, but that would mean a new rack etc etc


Zanash, You'll have a pm from me shortly! My interconnects are silver ribbons and they are great. I had been idly thinking about trying sliver for speaker cables and would be intetrrested to hear about your approach.

Best wishes

 

You need to be a little bit careful with electrostatics and high capacitance cables like the Cat 5 construction. Not generally a recommended combination regardless of GCSE qualification.

Paul

 

Capacitance and ESLs

Paul

Thanks for the warning! They did not have GCSE's when I was that age!

I was a bit nervous in trying the TNT design, but it seems to work OK. (I did have a problem using a similar design from my base amp to the subs- a loud buzzing which made me switch off VERY quickly and revert to a normal cable)

What sort of problems might one expect? Amplifier instability or performance degradation? Any guidelines on how much capacitance woudl cause a problem and in which circumstances?

Always grateful to learn.

Thanks again and best wishes

 

My amps situated right next to the ESls and having replaced the panel, the wire connecting the internal workings of the speakers is nothing fancy in fact it looks like everyday hook up wire. If there were sonic gains from using special cables, Im sure the manufacturer of a quality product would use them. Anyway Ill probably experiment with a few different designs and as the cable length is about 25 cms it shouldn't cost the earth. At the moment I'm using Gale something or another but its a bit to fat for the dinky speaker connections on the ESL 63's